Best Practices in teaching football

It starts with you.

We have a LOAF policy it is clearly defined.

But you have to a list for everything.

What things must be done in practice, drills for each position, what do you need from your coordinators before Monday all of these are your non-negotiables

In Michigan we do a week long minicamp, then we are into conditioning for a week, and then we start our double days.

I have done things different ways over the years. Where I have gone for the past few years (both as a varsity coordinator and a JV coordinator) is whole-part-whole.

I like to get a look at everything that we MIGHT do throughout the season during the minicamp. It's throwing a lot at our kids but they can usually handle it. The reason that I do it this way is because it gives me an idea of what my athletes in a given year can execute with ease,what we can be proficient at with time and practice, and things that we just may not have the dudes for that year.

Once we get into double days we slow it down and get really good at our basics (for us inside and outside zone). Once we as a staff our comfortable with the execution of our bread and butter plays, we start getting cute and adding in some wrinkles.

FIRST:

COMMON COACHING ERRORS AND HOW TO AVOID THEM



By: Bud Wilkinson



GENERAL COMMENTS: The best coach is the one who makes the fewest mistakes; the one who does the best teaching job; the one who is the best organizer. Writing the X’s & O’s is not the most important thing. There are 22 variables in a football game. Coach must be a salesman to the extent that when his team loses, they don’t blame him or the offensive and/or defensive system, but rather themselves.



ERRORS IN TEACHING METHODS:

FIRST = FAILURE TO USE TIME EFFICIENTLY. Failure to recognize the time factor available to get the job done. Planning makes for valuable use of time. Too long on any one thing produces boredom. When boredom comes in, learning goes out. Football players have a short attention span. Hold to time schedule.

SECOND = FAILURE TO EXPLAIN THE PURPOSE OF THE DRILL. Tell the boy WHY he is doing what he is trying to accomplish and he will do a better job. Explain WHY, then show HOW.

THIRD = IMPROPER TEACHING PROGRESSION. You can’t teach a boy how to block until he has learned stance. If he hasn’t learned stance, he doesn’t know how to step out of the stance into the block.

FOURTH = TOO MUCH VERBAL INSTRUCTION ON THE FIELD. How much can boy learn from your verbal instruction with his helmet on, he’s breathing hard, he aches, he’s stunned, etc. Do WHO and WHY in chalk talk. Teach assignments before hitting the field. Correct on the field. Teach – no! (HOW is taught on the field – not WHO & WHY).

FIFTH = TOO MUCH DEMONSTRATION BY COACH. How much you know is not important. How much player knows is.

SIXTH = BEING ON THE FIELD TOO LONG. Better to have a team eager to play rather than physically tired. How long to practice is a judgment factor. Cut down as season goes along – not going to change mechanical ability late in season. Only one rule never violated at Oklahoma. If one coach on staff feels practice too long, we must cut it down. More boys play poorly because they practiced too long than boys playing poorly because they didn’t practice long enough.



ERRORS IN TACTICS AND STRATEGY:

FIRST = TACTICS AND VICTORY. You get very few victories on tactics. Victories come if you can out block, out tackle, out fundamental your opponent. Red Sanders quote: “Intimidate them physically”! Outmaneuver – no. Defeat – yes.

SECOND = CLEAR CUT PHILOSOPHY A MUST. Decide on an offense and defense that will suit your personnel then stick to it. Depth of morale can be determined by a kid’s reaction to a loss. If morale deep, they’ll blame themselves. If morale shallow, they’ll blame you.

THIRD = TOO MANY PLAYS AND DEFENSES. Subtract the number of different plays used in the game from the total number of plays you practiced. If this number is too large you better get rid of some plays. It is difficult enough to know when to run off- tackle, but if you have four ways to run off-tackle, you will never get the right play. Beauty of Split-T was it’s very limited number of plays



ERRORS IN JUDGMENT:

FIRST = BE REALISTIC ABOUT PLAYER’S ABILITY. Don’t just put an X or an O on the board. Put up the boy’s name. Immediately his limitations affect the offense or defense you put up. Whale of a lot of difference between Dick Butkus and Humpty Dumpty.

SECOND = WHEN CHIPS ARE DOWN, BEST PLAYERS ARE IN THE GAME. It is a mistake to be able to play blue chippers only one way. Say best kid you have can only go on offense. Say opponent has ball for 45 minutes. These are 45 minutes he cannot help you.



ERRORS IN OFF FIELD RELATIONSHIP:

FIRST = RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER FACULTY MEMBERS. The environment that exists has a lot to do with winning or losing. If they are with you, your job is easier. If they are against you, you’re in trouble. Work on a program of how to win friends and influence faculty members.

SECOND = ORGANIZE A MOTHER’S CLUB. Get mother on your side by pointing out to her what he can get out of football besides winning games.

THIRD = PRESS, TV, AND RADIO. Straight up fact of life that the great majority of people get their impression of you from what they read in the paper, see on TV, or hear on radio. Their jobs depend on info. Get it to them to make their jobs easier. Get these people on your side. Let them know what you’re doing. They will interpret what you’re doing in the way you want it interpreted if they are with you.



ERRORS IN DEVELOPING MORALE (MORALE IS TO THE PHYSICAL AS 4 IS TO 1).

FIRST = FOOTBALL BEGINS WITH MORALE! Once you get morale, it is easy to maintain. How to get it is a problem.

SECOND = HOW TO LOSE MORALE. Do what you said you’re going to do. Don’t say we’re going to practice 1 ½ hours and go 2 ½ hours. Training rules – if you’re not going to enforce them, don’t have them.

THIRD = MORALE STEMS FROM DISCIPLINE (ALL Discipline begins by being on time).

FOURTH = TREAT PLAYERS AS A PERSON. If he feels you are interested in him only as a football player, he won’t go all out for you. If you are interested in his academics, his personal problems, etc. and he knows this, he’ll go all out for you. Convince him that football is good for his future.

FIFTH = One year, Notre Dame had 2 QB’s. Under great athlete, team failed; under mediocre QB, team succeeded. Why? Captain’s reply – “the great athlete is trying to show how good HE is. The TEAM is trying to make the average guy look good”.



COACH IN YOUR OWN WAY:

FIRST = DON’T COPY! Note clinicians and their personalities. ALL different ways of being successful. Plan carefully in the off season. Can’t take golf lessons between the 8th green and 9th tee.



CONCLUDING REMARKS: The man who is best organized and does the best teaching job, is the best coach.


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SECOND:

THEORIES OF LEARNING (by Ara Parseghian):



There are two broad theories of learning. In one, the teacher gradually builds up a total picture by teaching the “parts of the whole”, one at a time. In the other “broad-based” (“whole-part-whole”) theory, the teacher presents the larger picture first and then fills in the details. While I have witnessed both approaches used in football, I am convinced that the better is that of working from the broadest possible base. Consequently, we literally overwhelm our players with terms, techniques, formations, plays and theories of the broadest possible range.



Thus they are exposed to a broad concept of football and are required to fight their way through a maze, but in the end they better understand the total picture. Eventually, they will even master the specific details as well as the students who started with the details, that is, the “part of the whole” system. Again, it is our conviction that we must teach far more football strategy than is likely to be required. A study of these two approaches over the years has persuaded me that when a player is exposed from the very beginning to the widest possible base;

1. he can adjust to changes much more easily;

2. he is rarely overcome by the unexpected situation because he has been exposed to so many “looks”;

3. he probably gains a greater understanding of the system.



The teaching of football from the broadest possible base allows us, the coaches, to be much more versatile in our planning for a particular game; also it causes our opponent greater concern as he must prepare, in a short time, to defend or attack the many looks we have mastered.



Another point recommending the broad-based teaching approach is that, through their exposure to many styles of football, our players begin to teach us. Sooner or later it becomes clear that certain players are geared to certain phases of the game and, within that game, to certain styles. This point, that a particular combination of players dictates the style of offense and defense – through their own strengths and weaknesses – is perhaps the most important factor in a coach’s style and strategy.

The great thing about coaching football is that like every other profession, masters with vastly different styles and philosophies can be successful.  While their approach may be different, there are common threads of hard work, organization, vision, accountability, etc. that run through most.

Who could argue with either Coach Wilkinson or Parseghian?  ...and yet they seem to have differing philosophies.